Gundam Genesis
by BreakaKai
Summary: After a catastrophic nuclear war, the world scrambles to rebuild, and the two leading factions, the Alliance and the Federation, fight for the world's last sources of energy. Incorporates Mobile Suits from several series. Not Gundam 00-related.
1. Dogfight

**I. Dogfight**

"_Hei, three Zakus behind you."_

Hei looked into the rear camera, and sure enough, saw three dull green enemies behind him. Frowning at his misfortune, he reached up to pull a lever. As soon as it was pulled, there was a series of body-jarring shakes and clicks, as his SVMS-01 Flag converted from flight mode to combat mode. Whipping around in time to dodge several shots, Hei fired several of his own from the dual pistols. However, they only reached the shields of the Zaku II's. There lay the difference between his mobile suit, and the enemy's. While the Federation had designed their mobile suits to be slow, but take a lot of damage, the Alliance had built them for speed. That was the case now, as the Flag continuously dodged the shotgun shells fired from the Zakus.

"_Hei, I'm coming. Just sit tight."_

"No need. I'll do it myself," Hei said through gritted teeth, barely able to speak due to the G-forces. His stomach took another dive as he suddenly dove down, a shell narrowly missing his Flag's head. _I can't take this anymore._ With a grunt, Hei boosted right for the Zakus, who were surprised by this show of audacity. Tossing aside the pistols into the battle on the ground, the Zakus would notice the Flag's arm opening, and removing two knives.

"_Nein! Angriff!"_ The lead Zaku didn't have time to even raise his shield, as Hei dove under the machine, coming up behind him, and jabbing his knife into the cockpit. Hei could have sworn he heard a yell from within as the machine exploded.

"_Kamerad!"_ The second Zaku raised his shotgun as Hei turned around. _Shit._ Eyes widening as he attempted to dodge, but even knew it was useless. A shotgun blast at point blank would hit him, no matter how quick he was. However, as Hei closed his eyes, and braced himself for the pain, there was an explosion, though it wasn't his own mobile suit exploding.

"What the?" He yelled as there was another explosion. Where there should have been two Zakus blowing him to bits, he saw his comrades Eric and Chris. Looking down, Hei noticed two smoldering heaps of scrap metal falling.

"_Didn't you say you had it, you piece of shit?"_ Eric said with a grin. Hei rolled his eyes. That was Eric's signature line. "Piece of shit." He couldn't remember a single conversation with the guy where he _hadn't_ heard that.

"_You okay?"_ Chris asked, putting his rifle away.

"Yeah," Hei replied, putting the knives back into his arm. "I told you guys not to come."

"_So you could die?"_ Chris said with a laugh. _"You want to die, I'll give you some friendly fire right now."_

"Let's drop this," Hei mumbled, and turned his attention to the ground-based battle. Abandoning his teammates again, the Flag morphed into flight mode, dashing off for the ground below. However, he heard Chris' voice again.

"_Stop! Snipers!"_ he heard. His eyes widened, realizing what was about to happen. Sure enough, there was a loud _crack_ in the distance as a large bullet was fired. Despite the battle raging about him, Hei heard but the single crack, before his cockpit shook, and he was engulfed in bright flames.

**GAME OVER**

When Hei opened his eyes, he groaned, slamming the controls. Where the display should have been simply said those two words in bright red. In the bottom right corner read his grade: **D**. "Nice," he murmured, noting that under that also read, _mission failed_. He closed his eyes in despair, anticipating the tongue-lashing he was about to receive.

"What the _fuck_ was that, Shinato?" a gruff voice, followed by gloved hands yanked him out of the simulator. "Tossing away your pistols, engaging in a flat out _dogfight_ against soldiers with _shotguns?!_" Hei tried to looked down as his superior repeatedly jabbed his index finger into Hei's forehead.

"Sorry sir," he murmured, looking at his boots.

"I'm not done. And even _after_ Lee and Jenkins saved you, you didn't learn! Again, you went straight to the battle with knives. KNIVES ARE A LAST RESORT, YOU HEAR ME?! YOU'RE NOT A HERO! YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL!" Sergeant Smith roared.

"Understood, sir," Hei said with a sigh.

"Don't give me that _shit,_ Shinato, I- You know what? Get the fuck out of my face." Hei gave a last salute before Smith stomped away, mumbling under his breath. From behind the sim pod, Eric and Chris popped out, grinning.

"He's right, Hei," Eric said with a laugh. "You're not special. You're a piece of shit." Hei had a half mind to simply stuff his fist in the Korean man's mouth, but thought better of it, after being told off.

"How supportive you are," Hei replied with a sigh, and turned to walk away. "I'll see you tomorrow."

In his room, Hei locked the door behind him with a click. Tossing his keys into his bed, Hei sauntered over to the bathroom, turning on the faucet to wash his face. As he looked up from the running water, he saw his reflection; medium length, somewhat wild black hair encircling an angular face. Narrow eyes with piercing gray irises. His lips were narrow and shaking, possibly from anger, maybe even embarrassment.

With a grow, he removed the black piercing on his left earlobe. "Not a hero…? We'll see about that…"


	2. Again

**II. Again**

_This sucks_.

Still angry about the incident yesterday, Hei made his way to the dining hall for breakfast – a meager meal of just "crap in a box." There were no lovely lunch ladies or vending machines. All the way in the back of the hall was simply boxes of metal boxes. The contents inside the boxes were anyone's guess – no one could really tell what it was supposed to taste like, other than what their superiors told them. The response was always the same when asked: "It tastes like survival." Something stupid along those lines.

Heading to the back of the back of the room to pick one up for himself, he then headed back over to sit with the criminals from yesterday; Eric and Chris. They looked up and chuckled when he showed up. "Gee, I didn't think you'd show your face after the tongue-lashing yesterday," Chris remarked, shoving some of the "ration" into his mouth. Hei rolled his eyes.

"It takes more than words to stop me. If he doesn't blow my kneecaps off, I'm getting back into the sim today," he said, ripping the packaging open. The smell that greeted his nose was a little unbearable, and he had to ask himself how, after months in the military, he could not get used to the smell. Nevertheless, his hunger dictated he eat something, and with a deep breath, took a large spoonful of the mush, stuffing it into his mouth.

"Tastes like a piece of shit, eh?" Eric asked with a laugh, noting the distorted expression; one of pure disgust. Hei couldn't even muster the will to agree. The only thing he thought about now, was how much torture the breakfast period was going to be.

*****

"_Loading…"_ The screen before him showed a small progress bar, slowly filling up as Hei tapped the controls impatiently. The pseudo-Flag cockpit was like a second home to him, but given his impatient and reckless nature, not even he could stand long waiting times. With a sigh of relief, he gripped the controls as the familiar sight of the runway appeared on the screen. Though it wasn't real at all, it sure looked and felt real, his eyes taking everything he saw as real.

But the problem was, he knew in the back of his mind, the whole scenario wasn't real. That was why he could be so reckless.

"_Launching, priority to Corporal Shinato."_ Hei nodded, and hit the pedal to dash forward, his virtual flag disengaging its locks, and being catapulted forward. When he'd reached the end of the runway, he switched his boosters on, a loud roar appearing behind his ears. He hadn't even had a chance to breath yet, when the mission suddenly appeared in a small box:

_One enemy scout in the vicinity. Eliminate it._

Grinning at how stupidly easy the mission was, Hei sped into the open area, eager for battle. _I've got to redeem myself for yesterday,_ he thought, eyes searching all over the place for signs of an enemy. The location was not good for the occasion either; it was an abandoned city, presumably one of the remnants of the war. Behind any skyscraper could be an enemy. And even though the computer had told him there was only one enemy, it could lie at times.

"Where is he…?"

**Warning. Incoming.**

The message was simple and brief, but it instilled a cold fear into the Corporal. Usually, he wouldn't be scared, but now? He was damn near shitting his pants. "Why?" you ask? Whenever such an alert was made, Hei could usually see the enemy. But now, he could not see anything; his screen showed nothing, and his radar turned up the same results. _Is it malfunctioning?_ He thought, eyes still darting around everywhere. In case he was wrong about the computer, he unfolded the Flag into MS mode, and waited.

**BANG!**

Hei gave a yell as he was suddenly thrown upwards. The only thing preventing him from flying out of his seat was the harness. A display to his left read that one of his legs was damaged. "What the Hell?!" he yelled, still looking everywhere for the enemy. He suddenly remembered that the radar was only a top-down view, and if an enemy was in the radius, no matter what, it would alert him. But since he was nowhere to be found on the Heads Up Display, and absent on the radar…

"Below!" he yelled, looking down. Surely enough, he spotted a small black object quickly growing large. Firing off several rounds from his pistol, Hei watched in amazement as none of the bullets found its target; the enemy was too fast. This was a completely different experience from the last simulation, where he'd been able to hit everytime, but was unable to take them down.

This time around, he couldn't land a shot. Growing more and more frustrated, he emptied the magazine and again, disobeying his superior, tossed his pistol aside, and removed the knife from his arm. Boosting downwards at the enemy, he gasped when he got close enough to see what it was.

A Flag? But it was kind of different; the markings on it were no that of the Alliance's, or the Federation for that matter. Was he attacking a teammate? The moment of hesitation would cost him, as the Flag's "eye" shone briefly, and boosted at him, its own knife pointed at him. With a yell, Hei flew off to the side, letting the hostile fly past him.

"What's going on? Why am I fighting a teammate?" Hei yelled into the microphone, attempting to get some answers before he did something he regretted again.

"_Don't ask questions,_" a voice replied, as the Flag circled around for round three. It suddenly began moving at him at max speed, and Hei smirked, his pride coming into play again. A straight up melee contest? No way he was going to back down from that. With a yell, Hei attempted to slice the enemy's head off, but instead, his Flag found air. Next thing he knew, his computer told him one of his legs was missing. Whipping around angrily, he then lost an arm. The enemy was moving blindingly quick, though it wasn't the work of the machine; the pilot simply had incredible skill. He could only sit and watch helplessly as the black Flag utterly devoured his white one, leaving only the cockpit, which fell into the hands of the enemy.

_Holy Shit_.

His screen went black, and gravity returned to Earth, Hei slumping down in his seat. To add salt to his wound, the mission grade now came up, showing him a candid "F." With a groan, Hei slammed the controls repeatedly, until the door opened, and he looked up, expecting Smith to eat his heart out. Instead, he saw a man about his size and age, only with silver hair and green eyes, wearing the same uniform as Hei.

"I know, I fucked up, alright?" Hei said, turning away. "The computer just raped me."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Computer?" He laughed, covering his mouth.

Hei turned back, angered. "What's so funny?"

"There was no computer," the man said, shaking his head. "It was me who just 'raped you.'"


End file.
